KDG restricts pubcaster availability in carriage fee dispute

Kabel Deutschland (KDG) has restricted the availability of public broadcast channels from ARD and ZDF on its network to the legally required minimum as a result of an ongoing dispute between German cable operators and the country’s pubcasters over carriage fees.

From today, KDG will “align the bandwidth” of the public broadcasters’ services with those of the other channels on its network, and will also restrict the availability of regional public channels to their own specific region. For example, Saxony network MDR will be available in Saxony only, and not in neighbouring Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt.

Chief operating officer Manuel Cubero said that KDG had been unable to reach an agreement with the pubcasters despite “intensive efforts” on its part and described ARD and ZDF’s unwillingness to pay an acceptable rate for carriage on the cable platform as “incomprehensible” in light of the fact that they paid transmission fees for DVB-T broadcasts as well as satellite and IPTV carriage fees.